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Korean-American golfer Michelle Wie revealed some details of her private life in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel newspaper on Tuesday, discussing the boyfriend she is reportedly dating and her first year in college.
Despite last year's "nightmarish play," the young golfer is still firmly in the golfing spotlight. Making US$19 million in 2007, she was ranked the number two top-earning female athlete by U.S. business magazine Forbes, trailing only Russian tennis champ Maria Sharapova ($23 million). She'll have a chance to add to her winnings in next week's Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.
In the interview, Wie denied the report that she is dating Cuban-American Stanford basketball player Robin Lopez. "We're just friends," she said. "The whole thing kind of blew up and we were just talking to each other. It's my personal life. Certain things I want to keep private."
The wrist injury that bogged her down last year is "about 90 percent healed," she claimed. She's working now at David Leadbetter's Golf Academy in ChampionsGate near Orlando, Florida. She's got a busy golfing summer lined up, beginning with the Michelob Ultra Open and up to five more matches after that. She expects to join the LPGA Tour in earnest next year.
Wie believes that she has become more mature and composed. "(Last year) I didn't know what I was doing or who I wanted to be," she said. "It was just a phase, but now I'm comfortable with myself. I realize golf is not the biggest deal in the whole world. Golf is just a game. It won't kill anyone."
Last year marked the start of her first year in college, an experience which she said was as ordinary as any other freshman's. "I learned a lot about myself because I had a lot more freedom. I lived away from my parents, I had to do laundry and feed myself. I had laundry and the clothes came out a little crunchy. I learned a lot from mistakes and it's been great. I stayed up too late some times and you're really tired the next day."
Her career on the grass hasn't been going as well, and she expressed regret over pushing herself too hard in 2007. "The one thing is that I wouldn't have played last year," she said. "Looking back on it, there's no way I could have played with a wrist that had three broken bones. My mind and my body were in two different solar systems."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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